Beat the Heat

Looking for ways to beat the summer heat with your family? We’ve pulled together some ideas to help you find some relief when the temperature spikes. Remember to pack extra water bottles and hats on your adventures and stay cool, friends.

Hit the inside fun

It may seem counter-intuitive to go inside on a sunny day, but when the heat is this extreme, inside is one of the best places to be. If you have some little people who need to burn off some steam, hit the inside play area at the Ontario Science Centre. Play tourist at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada or the Royal Ontario Museum.

Splash inside

Make it an adventure and head to an indoor pool a bit further from home. River Grove Community Centre pool has a two-storey water slide and kids spray pool, Birchmount Pool has a couple slides and a spray pool, the Agincourt Leisure Pool has spraying palm trees and shipwreck water slide, and there’s always the Richmond Hill Wave Pool.

Excuses for ice cream at every meal

When it’s this hot, there’s no use resisting: ice cream is the way forward. It’s a good time to start trying all those ice cream places you’ve never been to: Ed’s Real Scoop, Scoop Shop, and to make it a proper handheld treat, the artisan ice cream sandwiches from Moo Milk Bar.

Erin McGann is Managing Editor for Toronto Mom Now and Vancouver Mom. She drinks just a bit too much coffee, is a bit obsessed about sourcing local food, plays the cello moderately well, spends too much time on Twitter, keeps honeybees on a rooftop, and has a thing for single-malt whisky. Erin is working on a novel set in turn-of-the-century Vancouver, which her husband, son and dog have to hear about all the time, and also blogs at Erin at Large. Contact her at erin [dot] mcgann [at] crispmedia [dot] ca